Instagram Adds New Tools to Block Abusive and Hateful DMs

Instagram is continuing its efforts to filter hateful and unwanted content from its platform and it will soon be taken another step towards solving this problem. The social media giant is adding new tools to its Direct Messages (DMs) to help people avoid hateful and abusive messages.

According to Instagram, most of the abusive and hateful messages come from DM requests. These come from people who have never followed you or have never messaged you before but are trying to send DMs.

From now on, Instagram will filter these DM requests with a list of keywords and emojis that were developed with the help of leading anti-discrimination and anti-bullying organizations.

Following this development, your DM requests will no longer contain words or emojis filtered by Instagram, or custom words added by you. Options for this feature will be found within Privacy Settings in the “Hidden Words” section.

All of your DM requests filtered with this feature will appear in a separate hidden folder and the message text will be hidden until you choose to open it. From here, you will be able to accept, decline, delete or report the request.

Instagram has also made it harder for blocked users to contact you. Once a user is blocked, any new accounts they attempt to make will not be able to contact you anymore It is unclear how Instagram will determine whether a user is attempting to make new accounts, but it should be a much welcome change for many.

The DM request filter update is rolling out to several countries over the upcoming weeks and should become globally available in roughly a month.